Biden: Calling up the troops for 2016?

Vice President Biden speaking to business leaders at a breakfast at the St. Regis hotel in Beijing in December (AP Photo/Lintao Zhang, Pool)

Everyone with even a passing interest in politics has likely followed the astonishing, self-inflicted, downhill slide of Hillary Clinton amid the launch of her most recent memoir, “Hard Choices.”

Was Vice President Biden one of those watching? After all, he certainly has a passing interest in politics.

We’re hearing that he’s recently reached out to many of the hundreds of his former Senate, vice-presidential and campaign staffs — and he’s run a number of campaigns, including two for president –just to say “Hi, howahya?”

The Democratic National Committee e-mail invite, from Biden counselor Greg Schultz — Ohio state director for the Obama-Biden re-elect and former Ohio deputy political director in 2008 — was followed by a July 1 reminder from Schultz to “join the Biden alumni call” that evening and “hear from the vice president as to what he’s working on.” Schultz asked recipients to “pass the message on” if they knew people who may not have been invited.

It’s unclear how many people dialed the special call-in number — the callers were on mute — but Biden popped on right on time at 7 p.m., we heard, to say that he had wanted to do this shout-out for a couple of years. He lamented that, while he saw some former aides all the time, he’s sorry he hasn’t been able to keep up with everyone.